I NEED SLEEP!!!

it is not nearly as bad as some of my friends (aka Natalie) however for the last three weeks Jackson has only slept through the night in his bed twice. In my book that is not good stats. Some have told me I have a teether. I don't know about your but I am am sick of saying "I think he is teething" Seriously people how long does it take for teeth to come in. We are going on like three and a half months right now. it can't take that long...my luck (well it would be good for me) he is going to get them all at the same time, molars and all.

the only way he sleeps and stops screaming is for me to hold him. with in minutes of holding him he is asleep, however I am a worry wort and so I can't sleep while holding him. I think he is going to roll over me when we are on the couch and fall off or get smashed in bed with us. Don't laugh these things have almost happened. My child is a crawler, a climber and he can pull himself over anything. He is a strong little sucker. Right now he is climbing off the couch. pulling himself over my leg.
i Remember these days of sleeping...taking naps and sleeping through the night. I WANT THEM BACK!!! so if I could command teeth to come in....I am doing it right now...TEETH COME IN!!! this mommy needs some sleep. ok I am done...I am going to go find my crawling baby. have a good one.

I have something to tell you:

Hi, this is Jackson. I have been the subject of these posts most of the time, so I thought it was time to turn the page and tell you about a special person in my life. See I have this dude...that likes to play with me and read me books and tonight he even helped me put a gate above these really bump things that I like to crawl to and look down. I think I scared my mommy the other day when I rolled down them. it was a crazy ride..and I gotta say a little scary by the time I reached the bottom, but my mommy picked me up and then it was all better.
So anyway about this gate. He is going to a lot of work building an extender to our banister so it will fit. So compliment my momma and dada on it when you come over...don't make any strange comments...they had to do it cuz I am just to adventuresome.
By the way this awesome dud is my dada: "I've Got An AWESOME DAD"
Have a safe week everyone... remember...compliments...no criticism...about how it looks.

We interrupt this Program

We interrupt this program for a special report.

Jackson has begun dangerous activities. he has learned the open shut game. Dump the DVD's all over the floor of course one by one, working on our fine motor skills.
you are thinking, oh how cute (it was the first time my neatly alphabatized videos were thrown all over the living room)then we had our big event...we kept telling him...it is all fun and games until someone gets there finger smashed. that is what happened today...the door started to close and I could see it happening and just couldn't get there fast enough. you can see on his ring finger the purpleish area... it is getting redder as we try and ice it...but he wants nothing to do with the ice. As a mom, you just wish you had a hyper speed button that you could push when you saw these things happening. We will keep you updated as to what happens next.

Jackson is a celebrity.

Well this morning I was all excited for people to read about little Jackson in the Elkhart Truth. After a miserable night of sleeping with my little one, between my husband and I in bed *queen sized* I headed to the local Martin's for a dozen eggs *i won't tell you how much they were :( * and a few copies of the article. So I walked in to the store and to my Shock the front page said :
"Help save his life" with a little pic of Jackson next to it. I am telling you, there was a reason for my skepticism about a newspaper article. Seriously, we want people to come to the benefit, but it isn't going to save his life. I am so sorry to all of you that are mislead by this article. We are hoping for a correction because on a smaller note they misspelled his name too. but we will see. Our neighbor already congratulated Jackson on his celebrity status. So he didn't take it the wrong way. I know that God can use anything for the good and I hope he does in this situation. It is a wonderful story, she did a great job with the few words she was given. if you want to check it out it is here.

More scrapping. I am telling you when I put my mind to it and set a deadline...i am a well oiled machine. Enjoy the latest work.... The first is from July when we were in Indy over the fourth. Jackson found his feet and wouldn't leave them alone. this is one I have been trying to work on since like last september. I like how it turned out. Different. Sometimes I get into a rut when i do all these at the same time. Food play is part of our therapy with Cathy...we make a mess or should I say Jackson and Cathy make a mess, while mom gets the sink ready for a bath at the end.
I was thinking the other day and then a friend brought it to my attention just how much of an impact Jackson has had on our community. God has done so much through him in just one short year. It gives me chills to see what He has in his future. He is our Little Prince....
As I was talking to a group of friends last sunday at church I was reminded about how blessed we have been that Jackson is so content. It makes it alot easier to know when something is really wrong to not have him fussy at the tiniest little thing. THis boy crys only when something is seriously wrong.
Before we knew, actually we barely had time to get use to Jackson Crawling...and he was on his feet standing at everything...and with that came falls, falls and more falls. On every surface and hitting his head numerous times. He must have a really hard head or a really high pain tolerance (ok, so we all know he has a high pain tolerance...come on the kid gets tylenol as a pain killer after surgery.) because he never cries.

this is a horrible photo of the page...sorry. I am sad that our long weekend is almost over...but we have a busy week ahead...visits from lots of people. Cannan, Clark and Melodi are coming tomorrow, then Brice and Sarah on Wednesday and thursday and then Sunday we have Alex and Anne. to think we also have our normal first steps therapy too...we are going to be wiped out come next weekend. I am sure we will have update...enjoy your week. :)

Scrappin Again......

I have bene on a scrapbooking hiatus for the past four months, however, thanks to Darcy organizing a crop a week ago, i have totally been on a roll. So I thought I would take the time and catch you up on Jackson's first year. Check it out:

the first three are from the crop at Darcy's. it was so much fun to see others work and see the different styles. It was also nice to meet others that share the love of this great hobby.

I love this one: this is totally not a normal baby book page, but when Jackson started to roll he would search under our couches daily. there was no hiding anything from him under there, from flip flops to power cords he would find them and then try to chew on them. not the safest or the cleanest thing.
Next I tried my hand at sewing on a page. not bad, as Darcy reminded me in Home Ec, they first taught us to sew with paper. Don't get ahead of yourself this was not accident free, I did break the needle...I am not an amatuer, but definitely not a professional, when it comes to sewing. Something I would like to start up again. There is so much you can do that can be so individualized if you sew.
I then had to go home, it was already 11:15 pm. I was going to be exhausted for a very big day the next day. But yesterday I pull out all the stuff again and it helped that Jackson decided to take not only one, but two 3 hour naps. It was great til last night when he wanted to be awake at 2 am. Anyhoo....here are the pages I finished yesterday.

I love these pictures on the park bench and love how this page turned out as well. first time using the gaffer tape, and I have been dying to use red, black and white and finally I found red paper without flowers. boys can't have flowers!!! :)

then 11 months was an odd page. I like how it came out but i am not elated. the picture is so cute that I wish the page was cuter. oh well.

At least I am two pages away from being done with the every month pages and then I have alot of firsts and a few Jackson only fact pages; like how many miles he as traveled in one year and how many hours he as spent in a hospital. We also traveled through the flooded areas of Iowa on our latest trip to MN and I want to document that that was big news this year. So I need to do a in the year you were born page. There are a few more to do, I got a steal on Thickers today when I went to HObby Lobby they were 50% off of 2.99. I can't believe I got them for 1.50. that is NUTS. So I am sure I will whip out the stuff this weekend to.

I need some prayers too, our garage sale is not selling much and that is the money I am going to use at the resale next weekend. So please pray that we have more attendance tomorrow. For anyone who needs baby stuff boy or girl go check it out it is on State Road 15, don't look at the road construction signs, it is before you get there.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend, enjoy the extra day before all schools begin.

You can't believe what gets done in a day?

ok Al I know, you build houses in three days but I have been waiting to see things happen for like 3 plus years. So this was amazing to me. Thank you so much guys for coming in and telling me I could watch but just taking over and getting it done. we are so overwelmed by the generosity. Thank you.

bye bye, yellow sponge paint and pretty pink flower border. I just have to say I will give the previous decorator credit...they didn't have a pink flower border with the yellow paint, but she did take a short cut and not take the first border down before she painted over it and then wallpapered again over the top of that. crazy lady. this house if anything has made me an anti-wallpaperer. if I wasn't before (sense the sarcasm).

So first they took everything out. Poor guys carried a cast iron tub out and dumped it in my front yard. I think I could have made the next revised version of:

You Know You are a Redneck IF:
they wanted me to use the bathtub as a flower planter...how redneck is that? (sorry to anyone that is offended by it, hope noone has one already)
we lost a wall...it is drastic how much bigger a bathroom looks without a privacy wall. come on, don't most close the door for privacy. I do.

this should be called blue board too...it is definitely ocean blue, not green. i was starting to think it is kinda pretty maybe i won't paint we will just leave it this way. minus the shop vacs and super bright lights. i am telling you only people that know what they are doing should do home remodels, not just anyone. cuz you just make it frustrating for virgil when he comes to fix your mess. hehe. sorry for the work of the previous homeowners. and a BIG thanks for fixing it.Stay tune...

Destruction in our HOME.

So we (or I should say the guys) started the bathroom destruction, aka remodel today. (aren't these colors special...love the decorating, just add a sunflower border over those pink flowersa nd you get the idea. I used to like yellow until I entered this room.) They are doing the gutting and the prep work for what will come when we add the cool new stuff. We have been so blessed by our church. I personally thought the pray and support of our church family was phenomenal, but they have totally out done themselves with this benefit they are planning. the support and encouragement is overwhelming and the passion to give. I can't wait until I can pay it forward to someone else.

We will continue to give you guys updates as the day goes on, or the weeks, or the months. However long it takes. I have lived with it stripped this far for three years. nothing will seem long, now that I know it is happening.

Thanks to everyone that has helped this happen...it means the world to us.